Submitted By Admin On Wed, 04/11/2012 - 13:40
After many years of hard work by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and other organizations and advocates, the IP closed captioning rules were published in the Federal Register on March 30, 2012 and establishes April 30, 2012 as the effective date for the rules. According to the rules, video programming shown on the Internet after being shown on television must have captions based on the following schedule established by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The new rules require the following schedule for each category of new video programming to begin full captioning compliance:

September 30, 2012: Prerecorded programming that is not edited for Internet distribution;
March 30, 2013: Live and near live programming that was recorded within 24 hours of broadcast on television;
September 30, 2013: Prerecorded programming that is edited for Internet distribution.
This means that by September 30, 2013, 100% of new video programming shown on television with captions must have captions when shown online.

By contrast, archival video programming that is already available online but shown or re-aired on television must be shown online with captions based on the following deadlines:

The programming must be captioned within 45 days after the date it is shown on television with captions on or after March 30, 2014;
The programming must be captioned within 30 days after the date it is shown on television with captions on or after March 30, 2015;
Such programming must be captioned within 15 days after the date it is shown on television with captions on or after March 30, 2016.
In addition, the rules require that covered "apparatus" (including computers, smart phones, tablets, DVD and Blu-ray players, and any physical device capable of receiving or playing back video programming simultaneously with sound) sold or manufactured in the United States must have closed captioning capability as of January 1, 2014.

They technically are "edited" since they don't have the same commercials in the commercial breaks.

Both with OnDemand and iPad app (e.g. XFinity Player), I've seen cases of the captions being WAY too early or late.. It's almost like the captions are a separate track and they didn't take into account the changes in commercial break lengths?

(Though I remember seeing them messed up on TV too, when WPT was on the Game Show Network.. often the first segment had captions from some ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SHOW.)

Yeah, I should email the closed captioning address the next time this happens.

The FCC can issue rules about broadcasts because it regulates broadcasters. How exactly is this "ruling" really going to have any teeth?

Click to expand...

Good question Doug, I am going to guess that Congress, under the ADA act, gave the "authority" to the FCC to "mandate" CC. Google and Apple only request more time to implement it. Also, I think the FCC has "broad powers" to regulate the "transmission of video with sound", so the FCC may have more "teeth" then you do.

I think the issue that Apple, Google, and Amazon have with the CC is not with streaming, but selling of the video because they will have pay royalties for use of the CC or add the CC to the video themselves, which is what Netflex is doing now with their subtitles. Have no ideal what Netflex pay to have video subtitle, but it may be cheaper then pay royalties for CC.

They technically are "edited" since they don't have the same commercials in the commercial breaks.

Both with OnDemand and iPad app (e.g. XFinity Player), I've seen cases of the captions being WAY too early or late.. It's almost like the captions are a separate track and they didn't take into account the changes in commercial break lengths?

(Though I remember seeing them messed up on TV too, when WPT was on the Game Show Network.. often the first segment had captions from some ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SHOW.)

Yeah, I should email the closed captioning address the next time this happens.

Click to expand...

The captions of an entirely different show seems to be a GSN only problem, or at least I have never encountered that on any other channel.

It means that older programming that is not currently being aired on tv may NEVER need to have captions, only if it is prepared for airing again.

Click to expand...

Considering MeTV, This TV, Antenna TV, and Cozi TV are airing a lot of really old, mostly popular shows, along with old movies, it bodes better than we might think, but yes, there will be some shows that can slip through the loophole.

The FCC stand for Federal COMMUNICATIONS Commission. It regulates virtually all COMMUNICATIONS in the country. If a device or system is used for COMMUNICATIONS, it is within the FCC's scope. FCC regulates (or can when it wants to ) ISP's. Any laws passed by Congress pertaining to the internet, its infrastructure, backbone, etc. is under the FCC oversight, not that the business friendly FCC will actually step-in on behalf of the consumers as it should. The FCC prefers to have a "hands off" policy, even with the Obama administration. The internet is a form of communication. The FCC has more than teeth. The FCC is GOD for the internet. Further, let's not forget that a TiVo device is regulated by the FCC and a TiVo is NOT a broadcast. Technical standards are part of its pervue